Service providers want to cost effectively satisfy customer demand for high-speed data. One way to provide customers with high-speed data is through the use of a fiber optic connection. A Fiber to the Distribution Point (FTTDP) connection can provide a more cost effective alternative for providing high-speed data services to customers than a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) connection. In an FTTDP architecture, an optical termination unit is placed close to the customer, e.g., at a distribution point, and is connected to customer premises equipment (CPE) using one or more existing, very-short metallic drop wires to the customer. Reuse of the existing drop wires eliminates a significant component of fiber optic cable and fiber installation cost that would be present with an FTTH architecture. As the connection between the optical termination unit and the customer premises is short, very high-speed data can be carried with inexpensive, low power hardware.
Another component of the problem of delivering high-speed data derives from the installation expense. To lower the installation expense, the service provider wants to minimize the number of truck rolls, i.e., installer visits, required to install the service for a customer. Ideally, one truck roll would be sufficient to make the high-speed service available to a group of customers, even if none of the customers elect to have high-speed service at that time.
Before FTTDP is installed at the distribution point, a customer is likely receiving POTS (plain old telephone service) service over the drop wires. A service unit can be installed at the distribution point and connected to a fiber optic cable to provide FTTDP capabilities. The service unit can also terminate the drop wires and the POTS pairs from the central office. Initially, every customer should remain connected to their POTS service by an ohmic connection. As each customer requests high-speed data service, the customer's drop wire connection has to be reconfigured from POTS to high-speed data.
The switch to high-speed data would be straightforward if the service unit and distribution point were supplied with local power. However, to further decrease the cost of providing service, the service unit can be back-powered from the customer premises, using the same pairs, i.e., the drop wires, which previously provided the POTS service. When back-powering from the customer premises is used to power the service unit, the service unit will be unpowered before the first high-speed data service is activated. The service unit may also be unpowered after the first high-speed data service has been activated, as customers may remove back-powering at any time when they do not need high-speed data service.
Therefore, what is needed are systems and methods that can control the connectivity of the drop connection with very little or no steady local power available at the distribution point.